26 Apr 2018

#BlogTour: SKY IN THE DEEP by Adrienne Young // #Interview

SKY IN THE DEEP by Adrienne Young!

I have a review of the book plus an interview with the author for you! It's a really exciting book and I can't wait to share my thoughts and let Adrienne tell you more about her process. Make sure you check out the whole post and leave your thoughts below! But first, let's learn more about the book...

SKY IN THE DEEP

Author: Adrienne YoungSeries: N/ASource: eARC via PublisherPublisher: Wednesday BooksPublication Date: April 24, 2018Summary:OND ELDR. BREATHE FIRE.Raised to be a warrior, seventeen-year-old Eelyn fights alongside her Aska clansmen in an ancient rivalry against the Riki clan. Her life is brutal but simple: fight and survive. Until the day she sees the impossible on the battlefield—her brother, fighting with the enemy—the brother she watched die five years ago.Faced with her brother's betrayal, she must survive the winter in the mountains with the Riki, in a village where every neighbor is an enemy, every battle scar possibly one she delivered. But when the Riki village is raided by a ruthless clan thought to be a legend, Eelyn is even more desperate to get back to her beloved family.She is given no choice but to trust Fiske, her brother’s friend, who sees her as a threat. They must do the impossible: unite the clans to fight together, or risk being slaughtered one by one. Driven by a love for her clan and her growing love for Fiske, Eelyn must confront her own definition of loyalty and family while daring to put her faith in the people she’s spent her life hating.

Describe SKY IN THE DEEP in 10 words or less.

What genre do you find yourself writing in most? Is this the same as what you read the most?

Adrienne Young: I definitely get inspired to write YA fantasy the most. It offers so many options. And I definitely read and love that genre the most too.

What advice would you give to your younger self?

Adrienne Young: If I'm talking to my younger writer-self, I would tell her to chill out. I wanted to be published so bad that I was really impatient and I feel like I really missed an opportunity to learn sometimes. If I'm just talking to my younger self in general, I'd tell her to just keep her head above water until she's 30. Because she will finally not give a shit about anything anymore and learn to love herself for who she is. Hang in there 17 year old Adrienne!

What inspired SKY IN THE DEEP? How did the idea and Eelyn come to you? Do you have anyfavorite Viking stories?

Adrienne Young: The sibling betrayal was definitely the first inspiration for this story. I was driving in the pouring rain on this country road and that first scene just hit me - Eelyn, seeing her brother on the battlefield after thinking that he was dead for five years. I pulled over on the side of the road and scribbled a million notes on an old envelope. I was immediately hooked to the idea and I wanted to know what had happened. I started writing that first chapter and I just never stopped.

What type of research did you do for your characters and world-building? What languages did you study to implement the languages that the Aska and the Riki speak? What was the strangest thing you had to research for this book?

Adrienne Young: I did a ton of research for this story. I actually really love to research things so it was a lot of fun. A lot of it was stuff like clothing, landscape, weapons, food, etc. But I did a lot of research into Norse mythology as well to build a foundation for this world. The language used is Old Norse, but it’s a dead language so studying it was really difficult. There is a lot of controversy about it among scholars and there’s no real way to fully understand it, so I just did my best based on my own investigation. I’m definitely not an expert! The weirdest thing I had to research was how to tear out someone’s eyeball. Yuck.

Adrienne Young is a born and bred Texan turned California

girl. She is a foodie with a deep love of history and travel and a shameless addiction to coffee. When she’s not writing, you can find her on her yoga mat, scouring antique fairs for old books, sipping wine over long dinners, or disappearing into her favorite art museums. She lives with her documentary filmmaker husband and their four little wildlings beneath the West Coast sun.

About Jamie

Jamie is a 20-something blogger from Ontario, Canada who loves to read, binge watch TV shows, and play video games in her spare time. She can be found in the wilds of Windsor-Essex County, but mostly stays in her apartment curled up with a cup of tea and a good book. Need a physical mailing address?

About Jamie

Jamie is a 20-something blogger from Ontario, Canada who loves to read, binge watch TV shows, and play video games in her spare time. She can be found in the wilds of Windsor-Essex County, but mostly stays in her apartment curled up with a cup of tea and a good book. Need a physical mailing address?